Weight: 17.10 lbs. Lost a bit of weight after a nasty virus this past week, which included lots of throwing up and loss of appetite.
Height: 29 inches….officially half my height!

LIKES:

Eating food and snacks, clapping, patty cake, sitting at her high chair, kicking her feet, chewing on her sippy cup, one two squeeze blocks, and her Patsy (paci).

HATES:

Sitting still and having her nose wiped, getting changed after a bath.

MILESTONES:

{Sleeping} Still right on track (not counting the week of the virus). 7:30-7 and taking a nice long 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and an occasional 45 min-1 hr nap in the afternoon.

{Movement} Loving tummy time. She can now push herself backward and can get to her knees, but just doesn’t know how to make it all work just yet. Just the other day, she managed to push herself backward from her tummy to sitting! Hasn’t really done anything since.

{Eating} Drinking about 27 oz. a day and eating pureed fruits and veggies and snacks. We give her a bit of our table food here and there, which she has had no issues with, and we are getting braver with different flavors, spices, and textures!

{Teething} Two more teeth on either side of her top teeth (which suddenly appeared overnight)! And still loves to grind them together! ICK. Drives me nuts.

{Talking} Still a lot of “gaga” and babbling. We’ve got the “D” and the “G” sounds DOWN. And sometimes a little bit of a lispy “S”.

Another 2 months older! And as you can see below, a lot of our favorites these past 2 months have to do with FOOD!

1. IKEA Blames High Chair – This high chair has really been great for us! I was a little skeptical at first, but it is easy to clean, has a nice large tray, and isn’t too bad on the eyes either.

2. Food Processor – We decided once Ellen started solids that we would make her own food. It’s so simple and if you have an hour or two to set aside, you can get so much made and not to mention the cost difference. We have this particular 7-cup Cuisinart and we absolutely love it! Just cut/peel, steam, and puree!

3. Ice Cube Trays– Once her food is pureed, we use ice cube trays to freeze her food. Each cube is about 1oz, so it is particularly useful when measuring out how much she is eating each day. It also lets us experiment with different pairings of veggies/fruits.

4. Dr Suess Mini Hard Books – These are great for reading at night. She can touch, feel, and grab without worrying about torn/wet pages. And they are baby sized!

5. Mum Mums– This was one of the first hard solid crunchy foods that Ellen tried. They have that initial hard feeling in her mouth and then disintegrate within seconds.

6. Costco Kirkland Brand Baby Wipes– These are so so great for anything and everything you can think of. Diaper changes, dirty faces, slimy fingers, runny noses. They have no scent and are on the less expensive end of most wipe brands.

7. Gerber Puffs – Like Mum Mums, these have the same initial crunchy feeling, and then disintegrate after a few seconds. They are almost the size of cheerios, when comparing size. We just pour a few on her tray and she gobbles them up like candy!

8. Bath tub squirties – Now that Ellen is sitting up on her own, bath time is a whole different experience. She loves chewing these little garden squirties in the tube, as well as some other rubber duckies we have for her.

9. One Two Squeeze Blocks – These blocks are so good for babies learning to grab and who are still chewing everything in sight. They are also good to grow up with, as each has a number and corresponding number of animals. They are made of a soft rubber-type material, so they are easy on the gums. And such cute colors!

10. Sleep Sack – Now that we are a little roly poly in bed and aren’t being swaddled anymore, this has been a lifesaver…..acting as somewhat of a wearable blanket. There are no worries of a blanket coming off or covering her face, and there is still plenty of room at the bottom for kicking her feet around.

This past weekend, we headed to Destin, Florida to meet up with Andrew’s family for a Mother’s Day weekend getaway! Andrew’s Mom (Nanny), rented a condo right on the beach for us to stay and the weather could not have been more perfect! The temperatures stuck around the high 70’s/low 80’s and my allergies finally got a couple days of rest.

We got to see Drew’s Grandmother (Nana), sister Laura, and our brother-in-law JC and nephew Alec!

The first day we were there, we got in some beach time. Ellen LOVED the beach! Got to stick her little toes in the sand and see the ocean for the first time. We also got our eat on at a fun seafood restaurant right on the beach, The Back Porch…..a Destin favorite!

The second day was a little warmer, but that didn’t stop us! We popped up the tent and spent a good portion of the day soaking up the sun and taking a dip in the Gulf. Ellen was such a trooper and even took a good 2 hour afternoon nap right on the beach!

For dinner that night, we headed to Margaritaville at Harborwalk Village, a fun little “downtown” area, full of shopping and fun places to eat right on the water.

Eating food and snacks, clapping, sitting at her high chair, chewing on her sippy cup, and TUMMY TIME! Yes people, we love tummy time.

HATES:

Sitting still and having her nose wiped.

MILESTONES:

{Sleeping} Napping great and sleeping great! 7:30-7 and taking a nice long 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and an occasional 45 min-1 hr nap in the afternoon.

{Movement} We are about to have a crawler! I swear, one day she woke up and just decided she loved tummy time and now wants to spend ALL her time on the floor, trying to figure out how to crawl. I know it will be any day now and she will be off! I also love walking in to get her out of bed in the morning and I see her little head poking up over the railing.

{Eating} She is quite the little eater. Loving all sorts of food and has really not had any issues. Still drinking about 27 oz. a day and eating fruits and veggies and snacks (puffs and mum mums). We have been experimenting with a little table food here and there….pieces of banana, pasta, and her first taste of chicken at Ipps!

{Teething} We now have both bottom teeth AND top teeth! They started coming in a couple weeks ago and she just loved grinding them together (drove me crazy). Now she loves giving us her cute toothy grin, which I can’t seem to get enough of!

{Talking} Still a lot of “gaga” and babbling. Loves blowing raspberries CONSTANTLY.

Right before we had Ellen, there was always the question of the hospital bag. When did we need to start packing? What all did we really NEED to bring? What does the hospital provide? I would say we did a pretty good job covering our bases and actually packed a lot more than we actually ended up using.

The hospital provides 90% of what baby will need. So the cute onesies, blankets, beanies, etc. aren’t really NECESSARY to bring, unless you want something cuter for baby to wear or be wrapped in. All diapers, pacifiers, onesies, blankets, socks, etc. were provided. (at least at our hospital)

For you and your partner….it’s all about comfort. And don’t put yourself in anything you don’t mind throwing away. Socks, stretchy yoga pants, slippers, and a robe are key! And if you are particular about pillows/blankets, you can bring your own.

If you have a longer labor, you can bring a few things to make the time pass quickly while you are there: iPAD/Computer with loaded movies, a camera (because you can never take too many pictures), your phones, and chargers. Also bring some change for the vending machines in case you get hungry at 3 in the morning like me! I remember wanting a cheeseburger SOOO bad after delivery, but had to settle for some crackers and juice until I could get my hands on some real food.

Our experience was so much better than I could have imagined and I am hoping it will be just the same, if not better, once we are ready for round 2!

This past weekend, Drew, Ellen, and I headed to the Big Shanty Festival to meet up with some friends. It was also the first weekend where it REALLY felt like SPRING! The weather was in the high 70’s….a little warmish. It did feel a little on the hotter side, but it was nice to get some sun!

The trees were blooming and everyone and their families were out and about at the Big Shant. And it wouldn’t have been a trip to the festival without a foot long corn dog and a funnel cake!

Needless to say, Ellen was pooped by the end. And so were mom and dad.

**UPDATE** We went to the doctor’s office on the 11th to do Ellen’s follow-up Flu Shot and she weighed in at 17.3 and was 26.5 inches long! Still right at about 50% for both weight and height!

LIKES:

Eating food, peekaboo, pulling her socks off (luckily we are getting into warmer temps which means…no more socks!), babbling, rolling around on the floor

HATES:

She still HATES tummy time. She is better at it, but can’t make it 30 seconds without getting frustrated and then, wants nothing to do with it. I guess we don’t have to worry about her moving anywhere anytime soon.

MILESTONES:

{Sleeping} Sleeping great from 7:30-6:00 with the occasional 4-5 o’clock wake up. We have been on a constant schedule of bath, bottle, and bed from day one, which I think is DEFINITELY the reason why she has been a great sleeper.

Napping is getting better, but still a work in progress at home. I can get her down and asleep in her crib, but they only last 30-45 minutes….whereas, if I am holding her, she can sleep up to 2 hours! At school, she will take naps in her crib anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

{Movement} Moving a lot and rolling from side to side….still hating tummy time though. Reaching and grabbing for objects like a pro!

{Eating} We’ve progressed to a new eating schedule just this past week. She drinks an average of 26 ounces a day (mostly 5 ounces every 3-4 hours with a 6 ounce bottle in the morning) and has fruit for breakfast and veggies at lunch. Trying some new foods this week…potatos, berries, pineapple, zucchini, and mixed veggies. We’ve also introduced some finger foods for snacks (which absolutely terrifies me!!). We’ve tried Gerber Puffs and Mum Mums. I’m like helicopter mom when it comes to her eating solid anything, for fear of her choking….but she seems to like them and is doing great!

{Teething} TWO bottom teeth! Occasionally when eating her puffs/mum mums, she will bite her own fingers. Those things can do some damage. Still drooling non-stop.

{Talking} I swear she was trying to say “Daddy” the other day. Sounded more like “GaGa”, but we are getting there. Once she figures out a new noise or sound to make, we hear it non-stop until the next new sound. She now talks or sings herself to sleep at night, which is adorable.

Well it’s only been 7 months and I am just now getting around to putting up some pictures of Ellen’s nursery. It took the longest time to decide which of our spare rooms would become her room…..both being about the same size. We decided to go with the room she is in currently, because the opposite room is over the garage and gets INCREDIBLY warm during the summer months. The only downer to her room now is the fact that it has double windows and is on the front side of the house. That’s where her blackout curtains and sleep sheep come in handy!

We absolutely LOVE our glider Andrew’s mom got us before Ellen was born. It is the most comfortable chair ever and there have been plenty of nights where either of us has ended up sleeping in it. Andrew’s Aunt also gave us the beautiful printed pillow with all of Ellen’s birth stats on it. Love.

I definitely had some fun with a few arts and crafts projects…the tissue tassel garland was a fun and VERY inexpensive projects that only included tissue paper, hot glue, scissors, and a jute string (but any string/twine will work!)

I also kept going back and forth between white or black picture frames and then finally decided to paint them with the Annie Sloane chalk paint I used for Ellen’s furniture. No priming or sanding required! Easy cheese.

Books, books, and more books! Can’t have too many.

We decided to use a dresser we already owned as Ellen’s changing table and just use the top three drawers, as well as the diaper caddy, to store all of the essentials….lotion, desitin, diapers, wipes, etc. The small painted, cream dresser was a gift from our good friends Heath and Dan, dressed up with some cute knobs from Anthropologie! We clearly don’t have an issue with storage!

The only thing we didn’t really get to is the closet, but that would be enough for an entire post on it’s own!